Tonight
by Cue.Card
Summary: A series of loosely connected Egoshipping tales, based on the song 'Tonight' by FM Static.
1. Prologue

**A/N: **Hi, guys! Just a couple of things I want to mention before we get underway here. First of all, this story has truly sickening amounts of egoshipping (that's Misty x Gary, if you weren't sure). If that isn't your cup of tea, I might suggest you not bother with this story. Second, this story is largely based off of the wonderful song **_Tonight_** by _**FM Static**_ (listen to it!). Thirdly, all the little one-shots that follow this prologue are _memories_. Gary's memories, to be exact. They **do not** follow the prologue or one another linearly. They are very loosely connected to the overarching prologue/plot, but other than that, they're a bit of a free for all. =3 I think that's about it... I must go and work on the next chapter of On Earth as in Heaven now~ Tata!

**Disclaimer: **I own the scenario. Other than that, I've gone and taken a bunch of characters owned by other people, and stuck them together to see what would happen. It's like one big party.

* * *

**Tonight**

**Prologue**

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* * *

**

Night was usually a good time for remembering.

And tonight, tonight was an excellent time for remembering.

Tonight, when the air was still thick with the scent of fresh flowers, before the water lilies had the chance to dry and wither to dust. Tonight, when the blue balloon with the note tied to the end of the string was still stuck in the branches of the old oak tree, where the wind had blown it the moment Violet had released it. Tonight, when the little candle Gary'd lit that morning had not yet waxed away, its flame still flickering fervently in the night.

Tonight, when the memory of her was still so fresh in his mind.

Tonight, when he could still taste the cinnamon chap-stick on her lips, or the sugar on her skin beneath his tongue. Tonight, when he could still smell the chlorine on her after a day in the pool, or her orange-scented shampoo. Tonight, when he could still feel the itchy fabric of her favorite sweater, or her body next to his when he held her. Tonight, when he could still hear the melody of her laughter, or that last, "_I love you," _before she'd left for Saffron.

Tonight, when it was so dark he could hardly see an inch in front of him, she could have been there with him.

In a perfect world, that would be where Misty Waterflower would be tonight. With him.

But that could never happen. Misty wouldn't be sitting next to her own gravestone at midnight, trying to remember how to live without herself. Misty wouldn't have spent the day with her three sisters, remembering the pretty girl with the sharp eyes, who'd had so much life, so much personality, so many dreams.

She wouldn't have been here, one year after her own death.

One year since Gary had caught the flu. One year since Misty had offered to go to Saffron and deliver that stupid final report to his research team for him. One year since the Team Rocket attack on the Silph Co. building that had gone so horribly wrong, had gotten so totally out of hand. One year since he'd gotten that phone call from Daisy, saying, "_She's gone, Gary. She's gone."_

And it still hurt, the wound still felt raw, it still tore him up every day of every week of every month of the year. Knowing he'd give anything to have her back again. Knowing it was his fault she was gone, and not him in her place. Knowing it should have been him who had died at Silph Co. that day, not her. It was the knife in his chest, slowly twisting. And he couldn't pull it out. Not when that pain was all that he had left of her.

But after that whole year, he'd come to two conclusions. One, that that feeling wasn't going to go away; it was going to stay with him until the day he died and repaid Misty the favor that was his life. Two, she wasn't coming back; no matter what happened, she was lost to him, to this world, forever.

Now all that was left was to say goodbye.

He just hadn't expected something so simple to be so damn difficult.


	2. I Remember the Times We Spent Together

**A/N: **Hello again, if you've made it this far. =3 It killed me a little bit inside to have Misty be dead, but such is this fictional world I have created. I'll rectify it now by merrily pretending she's alive and everyone's happy! Well, except maybe Gary... but you'll find that out. ;) Remember that these are Gary's memories; they **precede** the prologue. Also, listen to _**FM Static**_ - the song _**Tonight**_. It's pretty, and a great inspiration for a story like this. Without further ado...

**Disclaimer: **I own the scenario. Other than that, I've gone and taken a bunch of characters owned by other people, and stuck them together to see what would happen. It's like one big party.

* * *

**Tonight**

**I Remember the Times We Spent Together**

**

* * *

**

_This had been a stupid idea. A really, really, really stupid idea._

_Who took a girl snowboarding for a first date, anyway? No one, that's who. What had been going through his thick skull?_

'_That night skiing is cheap,' his mind quietly replied. 'That she'd get cold and I'd have to step in as the resident heater. That she wouldn't know how to snowboard, I'd have to teach her, and she'd fall right into my arms.' One, two, three, and bam, she should have been right where he wanted her. _

_Too bad little Miss Waterflower did know how to snowboard. Almost as well as he did. Too bad little Miss Waterflower wanted to race him down the double black diamonds. Fast enough that he actually had to work to keep up to her. Too bad little Miss Waterflower had come dressed prepared for all of this. And gave him weird looks whenever he was less than three feet away._

_And, of course, the icing on top of the cake was this. Any other girl, and he could have turned this situation around, but not with Misty. If they hadn't been friends, and he didn't know her as well as he did, he probably would have tried anyway. But he knew if he did, he'd earn nothing but a slap to the face and a knee in a very unfortunate place._

_Actually, if it had been any other girl, he wouldn't have even been in this mess. Any other girl wouldn't have taken a foot off the bunny hill. But Misty Waterflower had wanted one last run from the top of the bloody mountain, and because of it, they were stuck up here, at the top of said bloody mountain, with fifteen other people, crammed into a little shack of a house, at three – fricking – AM._

_Risk of an avalanche, they'd said. No one was allowed back down the mountain until they got someone up here in the morning to evaluate the situation. Yeah, right._

_Misty had shrugged it off, taken her complimentary cup of hot chocolate, and gone to curl up in an armchair in the corner of the room by a window and wait until morning. And Gary was left knowing that he wasn't about to get lucky. In fact, he probably wasn't even going to get a kiss._

_Worst. Date. Ever._

_There wasn't much else to do than go and sit with her and wait until the morning. Maybe, if he was really lucky, he'd manage to swing a hug out of it. He just wasn't going to hold his breath for one._

"_Hey, you," he tried, walking up behind her to lean against the back of her chair. She'd taken off her coat when they'd been told they'd be staying overnight, and he appreciated the fact. From this angle, she looked curvy enough to be enticing. He was reminded of why he'd bothered to ask her out in the first place._

"_Hey," she replied easily, looking up at him from beneath long lashes. Her cheeks were flushed, a little wind burnt from the day, giving her some color, and her hair was just windswept enough to be sexy. Very kissable._

"_What were you thinking about?" He pressed. She'd been quiet for an awful long time, here in her corner, and that usually meant she was thinking. She just usually didn't bother to tell him what about. Maybe today would be different._

"_Just about the stars," she replied, looking back through the window. The view from the top of the mountain was breathtaking, truly it was. The sky was clear, leaving only the wide expanse of space visible, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. All there were, were the stars. An endless sea of stars, as far as the eye could see._

"_And just what, pray tell, do you think about the stars?" He asked. This topic held some promise. Stars were romantic. Girls liked stars. The whole Romeo and Juliet thing. Star crossed lovers. Girls ate that kind of thing up like food to a starving man. Maybe he wouldn't count that kiss out just yet.  
_

_Misty looked back up at him, lips pressed together in her Cheshire cat smile. She was feeling quirky. He could tell. "I was just wondering… Are they just… you know, there? Big balls of burning gas up in the heavens? Or do you think they mean something? Tell a tale like a storybook? And I don't want your I'm-a-researcher-I-know-best answer. What does Gary Oak think?"_

_She gave him one of her puppy-dog looks. And damn, was it hard to concentrate with her looking like that. When all he wanted to do was kiss her to those heavens and back again._

_But Gary had been in these sorts of situations before. He could control that urge. Sort of._

"_You forgot the third option," he gave her one of the grins that usually had girls melting at his feet. "They might just be put there so that we can stare at them endlessly and think there's something important in them, when really there isn't. Did you ever think of that?" So damn kissable. He just needed her an inch or two closer._

_She suppressed a giggle, but gave him a winning smile that only made him want to kiss her more. "That, too. What do you think? Are they just big balls of gas, conversation starters, or do they have some sort of secret message in them?"_

'_Whatever the hell you want me to think,' he wished he could have said. But he knew she would hate that. She didn't want somebody whipped like that. She was looking for an argument, probably. But he didn't want to run off at the mouth – the opposite, really. He had other plans for his mouth. And hers._

_But damn if he knew what he was supposed to say. Not argue? Agree, they definitely had some strange, deeper meaning in them? That was the answer most girls usually wanted, wasn't it? Yeah, probably. Followed by some cheesy pick-up line that only ever worked in situations like this. 'I don't see any stars in the sky tonight. The most heavenly body is sitting right next to me.' Something like that.  
_

_The scientist in him disagreed. Girls wanted the truth. Er - at least he was pretty sure Misty did. But he could ignore that part of him if he really wanted to. He could say no, stars were a bunch of burning hydrogen up in the sky, but that wouldn't be terribly romantic of him, now, would it? No, that wasn't going to get him a kiss._

_That didn't leave him much of a choice._

_Here went nothing._

"_Shakespeare wasn't an idiot, I figure. If there are such things as star-crossed lovers, I suppose the stars must have a deeper meaning," he finally settled, saying it as matter-of-factly as he could muster. He thought the idea was completely ludicrous, but for the moment, he'd put up with that._

_Misty immediately broke out into a fit of laughter. She tried to stifle it with a hand, but to no avail. She was laughing so hard the others were starting to look at his nut-job of a date like she'd suddenly gone insane._

_And while her laughter was like music to his ears, his pride couldn't help but feel a little stepped on. "What's so funny?" He asked after a few minutes of Misty's constant snickers._

_She shook her head, still laughing. "I didn't think anyone was daft enough to think that!" She giggled helplessly. She couldn't even look him in the eye anymore. How the hell had this backfired so badly? "We know they're just big, burning balls of Lithium, Gare! Everyone knows that!"_

"_It's hydrogen," he replied weakly, but it didn't matter anymore._

_The moment was gone._


	3. On Those Drives, Had a Million Questions

**A/N: **I'm honoured by the reviews on the Prologue, truly, truly honoured. I may have gotten a little tear in my eye. :) Anyway, I meant to post this little fic ages ago, and my personal life kind of got in the way, as it often does. But I hope this little story is enjoyable to those who read it, and I hope the next one won't take as long (it's mostly entirely written at this point. I just need to edit it). =3 Much love to those of you who review~ And for the record, this story comes well before the first one. I'm sure you would have figured that out though. :)

******Disclaimer: **I own the scenario. Other than that, I've gone and taken a bunch of characters owned by other people, and stuck them together to see what would happen. It's like one big party.

* * *

**Tonight**

**On Those Drives, We Had a Million Questions**

* * *

"_I told you we should have taken that left on Route 214," Misty huffed beneath her breath for the forty-seventh time that night._

_Okay, forty-six- and-a-half times. He'd interrupted once. _

_Not that he'd been counting or anything. _

_Because he definitely hadn't._

_Okay… so maybe he had. But he had to do something to keep himself sane, and the other option was to strangle Misty to death. And fact was, that probably wouldn't end well for either of them._

_The point was that it was getting old – fast. If she said it one more time, he swore he would… well, he wasn't really sure just what he would do. But it would definitely involve shutting her up. By force, if necessary. Mind, when it came to Misty Waterflower, you had to do most things by force. Otherwise, nothing ever got done. _

_He'd learned that one the hard way._

"_I realize I'm a screw up. But thanks for the reminder," he sneered back, fists white against the steering wheel as he tried to keep his frustration and anger and – if he were being honest with himself – anxiety in check._

_Really, it was bad enough that he was driving around blindly in the middle of the night, in a truck he wasn't used to, only two weeks after he'd gotten his driver's license, to a place he'd never been to before, on a rickety narrow road up the side of a mountain, through more fog then he thought he'd ever seen in his entire life put together, with very special, very expensive, cargo on-board._

_For the record, he didn't mean Misty._

_Half the time he was sure he was going to hit something, and probably die in the resulting crash (even if he didn't, his grandfather would probably flay him alive shortly thereafter anyway). The other half of the time, he was listening to Misty complain about how lost they were._

_And he was bloody well sick of it._

_Why a bunch of stuffy professors with pen protectors and multimillion dollar insurance policies on test tubes couldn't figure out a better way to transport a couple – okay, maybe a couple hundred, but still – vaccines between cities was truly beyond him. These were the people ushering in the new century, weren't they? Then why were they still doing things like this by car?_

_Gary swore under his breath just thinking about it. The first thing he was going to do when he became an official researcher was figure out a different way of doing things like this. A better way of doing things like this. Because there just had to be a better way. Physics said so. Somewhere._

_Okay, so maybe he hadn't cracked open that beast of a physics book yet. He'd get there. Maybe._

_Anyway, that wasn't important. What was important was that next time, he wasn't going to be taking along little Miss Waterflower. No matter how much she begged him with those puppy dog eyes of hers for a bit of adventure. Never again was he going to fall for that look._

_That look was bad news._

'_But I've been to Sinnoh for a water Pokémon conference. I've even met Crasher Wake. I can navigate for you,' she'd said. Yeah, right. And he was Hoenn League Champion._

"_You're not a screw up," Misty replied bristly, and he could tell just by the tone of her voice that she was rolling her eyes. Misty did things like that. And he swore she did it just to annoy him. "You're basically amazing at everything you've ever tried, in case you haven't noticed. Except directions. Directions seem to elude you. So, since you seem to have lost yours, you think we can we stop and borrow someone else's?"_

"_No," he said quickly, without giving it much thought. Sure, directions. Those might be helpful, when you were lost like Gary was, driving around Sinnoh in the middle of the night on an emergency call. But he wasn't real interested, thanks. Real men didn't need directions. And Gary Oak was definitely too much of a real man to stoop that low._

_Or at least that was what he'd been telling himself for the last three hours._

"_We're just going to get more lost like this," Misty snapped back moodily, crossing her arms and falling back into her seat with a thump. "And then we'll never get to Professor Rowan's. And then you'll have to go back to your grandpa and explain why all those Pokémon are dying because they never got those vaccines. Is that what you want?"_

_Damn, could she ever get on his nerves sometimes._

_Why the hell did she always have to be right, anyway? _

"_Fine!" Gary retorted bitterly, jerking the wheel hard before he even really knew where he was going. He'd meant to pull over, but he'd get a little more than that. In the years to come, he'd later blame this on inexperience. That was mostly a lie._

_The truck jerked to one side as Gary spun the wheel, skidding sideways off the side of the road so hard that all he could hear was the screech of rubber and all he could feel was the sudden burst of pain all the way up his arm as he was thrown into the door._

_Eyes wide, Gary spun the wheel around again, but the truck had been going too fast, and the passenger's side hit the barrier so hard it actually started to tip over the side, still skidding along down the side of the road on two wheels and Gary was thrown back to the other side, catching the seat-belt in his chest so hard he couldn't breathe._

_Misty screamed somewhere on one side as she was thrown hard into the other side of the truck and there was another loud crack, followed by a second even louder one, but he didn't look to see what had caused it. He could taste blood in his mouth. Frantically trying to regain control, he jerked the wheel the other way, punching at the gas and brake at the same time in a panic, trying to stop._

_But the back tires had gotten lodged in the gravel on the side of the road. As Gary punched at the gas, the truck was sent into a wild spiral. It twisted sharply, and both Gary and Misty were thrown around hard from one side to the other, but finally it cleared the lip of the side of the road with a lurch. Gary heard more than felt his skull crack against the back of his seat as he was pitched backwards._

_Before he had a chance to straighten out the truck, however, it rammed straight into the cliff face on the opposite side the road, where it finally stopped. There was a screech of metal, and then the crunch as it collapsed, and the air still smelt like burning rubber, and the windshield was cracked like a spider's web, and his hands were shaking, and the horn was sounding from where Gary's forehead had hit it, and he felt like he couldn't breathe, and Misty was hyperventilating in the seat next to him, and… he couldn't even think._

_He couldn't move. His eyes were wide open, and he was staring at his knees, adrenaline springing fresh in his veins, his forehead still hitting the horn, but he couldn't make himself care. His hands were gripping the steering wheel so hard he didn't think he could actually let go, his foot still flooring the brake but he didn't think he could stop that, either._

_They sat there for a long time, neither really cognizant enough to speak, and Gary found himself counting the seconds. Counting. Except he kept getting stuck on twenty-three. He'd get to twenty-three, and then just start all over again. And he had no idea why._

_When his brain finally kicked back in, and he felt like he could think again, he realized just what it was about the number twenty-three._

_Twenty-three was exactly how many times Misty was breathing every minute._

_He'd almost killed her. He'd almost killed the innocent little girl in the passenger seat. He'd almost killed her because of one idiotic decision he'd made. She could have died, right there, next to him._

"_Forget not being able to take directions," she finally breathed from the passenger side, and he turned his head to look at her, still shaking where she sat._

_She'd gotten some sort of head wound, he noted immediately with a frown. She was bleeding because of him. It was his fault she was hurt. Blood was dark, blood was thick, blood stained. And it was definitely staining her skin from the gash across her forehead, drops still rolling down the side of her face and off the end of her chin. Like a tear drop._

_There were definitely some of those, too, staining her cheeks._

"_What you can't do is drive."_

** || ~ & ~ /\ ~ & ~ || **

_All things considered, he'd done surprisingly little damage. Even Misty agreed, and that was saying something. _

_The truck still ran, despite the decidedly crushed front end, caving in on one side, and the huge dent in the passenger's side. Misty agreed to drive it to the other side of the road, just to be safe. Gary wasn't going to be driving anymore, at least not that night. Couldn't even think it. Couldn't make his hands stop shaking enough to grip the wheel again. Couldn't get the panic worked out of his system when he jammed the key in the ignition._

_Luckily he didn't have to say anything. Misty knew. She just knew._

_They'd quickly decided that they'd crash right where they were for the night – or rather the early hours of the morning, by then. They'd call for a tow-truck when the sun finally rose, and the rest of the world was awake. And civil. Civility usually somehow died between the hours of eleven at night and eight in the morning._

_They were lying in the truck bed now, side-by-side, staring up at the overcast sky in silence. Gary certainly had no desire to get back into that little metal box anytime soon, and he was pretty sure Misty would share that opinion, judging by how badly she was still shaking next to him. He'd scared her. Badly._

_Damn, he felt like crap._

_They were surrounded by the boxes upon boxes of vaccines that wouldn't be making it to Sandgem Town on time. He didn't want to have to think about how many people he'd be disappointing, or the Pokémon whose lives he was endangering by not getting over his shot nerves and getting back into that steel box of death._

_But he couldn't endanger her –_

– _and by 'her' he obviously meant the boxes of vaccines – _

– _again like that. Not in a million years._

"_Truth: I have no idea what Crasher Wake even looks like," Misty suddenly said beside him, and he turned to watch her. She'd used some bottled water to get the worst of the blood off her face, which made her infinitely better, but something about the way the moonlight kissed her skin made her look pale and ghostly. Like she actually was dead._

"_What?" He asked. Sure, Misty had a tendency to be a little random at best (her greatest feat being, naturally, training his Blastoise to tap dance – a horrifying reality), but this hadn't had any sort of introduction whatsoever._

"_You heard me," she replied easily. "If I hadn't Googled the Sinnoh Gym Leaders last weekend, I would have no idea that Crasher Wake even existed."_

"_Oh," he said, and that response sounded stupid even to him. Well, that certainly didn't add up the way it ought to. And he would know, being a budding researcher and all. "Then why the hell did you tell me you had? Some navigator you are."_

"_That's not how it works," Misty snapped back sassily, giving him a bit of a Cheshire cat smirk. "I get to ask you a question now. And you have to answer honestly. Think you can handle that, Oak? Telling the truth?"_

"_Hey! Where did that come from?" He asked defensively. "I tell the truth. Sometimes. And where did you get this stupid idea, anyway? Isn't Truth or Dare a kiddy game? We're sixteen. If anything, we should be playing Spin the Bottle. Or the Nervous Game. Something like that."_

"_Pfft," Misty snorted in a very unbecoming sort of way. "Like I'd let someone like you get close enough to me for something like that. And we're not playing Truth or Dare, either. I'm not stupid enough to let someone like you get me on a bad Dare. Besides, we have to do something until morning, and I know we're both too buzzed to sleep."_

"_Fine," Gary huffed exaggeratedly. Truth be told (no pun intended), he wouldn't mind talking to Misty for a while, and they honestly didn't have anything better to do. It just felt a little emasculating, which was definitely not his cup of tea. Er - Whiskey. Real men didn't drink tea. "Shoot."_

"_Hmm…" Misty pursed her lips and hummed as she thought. She always got this interesting expression on her face when she thought like this, like she was savoring some sort of candy. It made her look uncharacteristically sweet (off the record). "If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do?"_

"_Sleep, probably," Gary replied without really thinking about it. "So I don't miss all the excitement."_

"_That is the worst answer I have ever heard," Misty replied, with a disbelieving shake of her head. "You wouldn't… I don't know… go see the Taj Mahal? Or go sky diving?" He shook his head to both these suggestions, and, exasperated, Misty added, "Or sex it up with a super model?"_

"_Now you're talking," Gary replied with a chuckle and a grin. "But I'd probably still sleep. That way, I don't know when it's coming. Actually… I think this is the best idea I've had for a while. It's almost a pity it will never be put to good use."_

"_Don't even joke about that," Misty said seriously, giving him a pointed look that somehow just made him smile. "Stop it! I'm serious!" She snapped when she saw his grin, and the look on her face only made him smile more, and she punched his arm hard enough to bruise before crossing her arms over her chest and staring at the sky moodily._

"_Ow!" He said, gingering the spot she'd hit. She had strength no woman had any business having, really. That had actually hurt. "What was that for? You told me to answer honestly, so I did! Make up your mind already! What do you want from me?"_

"_Just ask the next question," Misty spat, still not looking at him, sticking her chin in the air. Ah, could she have mood-swings. Then, that was probably why they could be friends so easily. He knew he'd never have the patience to date her, and that kept them on pretty neutral ground._

"_Well, fine, Princess," He replied sarcastically. The idea was definitely in his head to use Misty's little game to his advantage, but it wasn't quite time to pull that card yet. "What is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done at the mall, then?"_

"_At the mall?" Misty piqued incredulously, finally turning to look at him again. He shrugged casually, and, after a few moments, Misty blushed hot red. "You know what? You were right. This is a stupid kiddy game. Let's do something else."_

"_Na-uh, Princess," Gary grinned at her. "You're not getting out of this one. I answered your question, now you answer mine. What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done at the mall?"_

_Misty pouted a bit at him, but Gary was beyond falling for that tried and true tactic. Misty sighed, and then finally said, "Well, you know how my sisters would do just about anything to be up on a catwalk?" Gary nodded. "Yeah, well… they shop. A lot. And I don't really."_

"_Yeah, I've noticed," he chided, and Misty shot him the dirtiest look he'd ever seen her wear. It was something of a wonder that someone so pretty could make herself look so damn ugly, he thought. But rather than apologize, because that would be stupid, he chuckled. "I just meant that you're a tomboy. Continue with your story, Princess."_

_Misty rolled her eyes up at him, and he grinned at her. "Well, I don't see cashmere very often, and… I don't know… I saw this male mannequin wearing this cashmere sweater, and it just looked so soft, I had to touch it." Her face pinked again. "And… and it was really soft, and I was running my hands all over it, and…"_

"_You were feeling up some random guy, weren't you?" Gary finished for her with a laugh, and Misty blushed hot red. That was enough of an answer for him. "It wasn't a mannequin, was it? It was just some guy standing really still."_

"_Maybe. Sort of. Yeah." She admitted, obviously flustered as she carefully avoided his eye. "Let's just say I don't shop very often anymore."_

_It was kind of nice, seeing some color in her cheeks. Maybe made her look kind of cute – not that he'd admit it, under pain of death. That just wasn't something Gary Oak would say to a pretty little girl. Particularly one he'd just about gotten killed._

"_What's the cheesiest pickup line you've ever legit used?" She asked before he could think over this too much. "Better: what's the cheesiest pickup line you've ever used, and had it backfire?"_

_He grinned and quirked an eyebrow up at her. "I can't just let out secrets like that for nothing. It's a trick of the trade. I might need to use it again someday. Only potential targets get to hear things like that."_

_Without missing a beat, Misty said quite seriously, "Well, I guess you'll just have to try and pick me up then, won't you?"_

_Thought one: sure thing, baby. Thought two: woah, woah, woah, woah. Time out. Where the hell had that come from? Thought three: this is a zone we're not going into, Misty. Thought four: well… you did ask for it. I wouldn't want to disappoint._

_Thought four won out._

_He sat up in the bed of the truck, raked a hand through his hair, and tried to keep his expression neutral. This was much more challenging than it had any right to be. He just couldn't stop his smile._

_Finally, he looked down at her, and said quite gravely, "Hey, I'm doing a survey of what people think are the cheesiest pickup lines. So, do you pick, 'do you come here often?', 'what's your sign?', or 'hey, I'm doing a survey of what people think are the cheesiest pickup lines'?"_

"'_If you're going to regret this in the morning, we can sleep until the afternoon,'" Misty replied without batting an eyelash. _

_Gary stared at her for a long moment, caught off-guard. That wasn't the answer he'd been expecting. He'd been expecting her to get flustered again, and this was just the opposite. Finally he said, "Okay, okay, I fold. You win."_

_Misty's Cheshire cat look rebounded on him fast. She was smug. Oh, damn, was she ever smug. He could see it in the twinkle in her eye, her quirky little smile. Maybe he'd let her win more often – _

_That there was crazy talk. Misty wasn't his type. At all._

"_Okay, if you're going to play the game like that," he pressed instead, trying to focus on the game, rather than how pretty she looked. "What's the one question you hope to hell I don't ask you while we play this little game?"_

_The smug look on her face didn't budge an inch. "You're making this so easy," she mused playfully. "The one question I don't want you to ask? That's simple. I don't want you to ask me what the one question is I don't want you to ask."_

"_Hey! That's cheating!" Gary shot back indignantly. "You said we had to answer honestly. You can't just turn that question back around on me like that."_

"_I was being honest. I didn't lie," she smirked up at him. "Bow down to my intellectual superiority, Oak. You should've thought of a countermeasure, if you were going to ask a question like that. That was fair and square."_

"_There was nothing either fair or square about that answer," he shot back moodily, but privately he did have to hand it to her. She knew how to play people. He just never thought he'd be fool enough to fall for her – it. He meant it – so easily. "But fine. I'll give you this one. But you owe me one later."_

"_I don't give away freebies," she informed him with her cheeky little smile still in place. "But I'll consider making an exception, just for you. I'll have my people call your people."_

"_Oh, cute," he rolled his eyes, but gave her a crooked half-smile anyway. He wasn't sure why, though. She certainly didn't deserve it. "Okay, stop stalling. What's your next question?"_

"_Pushy, aren't you?" She tsked. "Well, fine. You asked for it. I'll show you how it's done. Turn around is fair play. Okay, without copying my answer, what's the one question you hope I don't ask you right now?"_

"_Do you always play this dirty?" He asked with a wry sort of chuckle, but rather than give him an answer, she just smiled confidently. He had to think of something, fast, or he was going to lose. This, he thought, would be pretty pathetic of him, saying that this hardly qualified as a game, let alone one in which anyone could lose._

_Only he couldn't think of anything to counter that. Which left him with one option: being honest. Even if that was the whole point of Misty's little game, it didn't mean he wanted to resort to it._

"_What my first thought was after we crashed," he finally settled. Maybe he could think of worse things, but that seemed like a pretty terrible thing to admit to Misty at that moment. She didn't need to know how much she was on his mind in those moments._

_The smile on her face was devious. He'd have to throw her for a loop with his next question, and hope that took her mind off of it. But that smile told him she wouldn't fall for something so petty. She had a plan, and Misty always followed through with her plans._

_He could still lie about it, he figured. But somehow he thought she'd probably know if he did. Girls had superpowers like that._

"_Why'd you tell me you knew Crasher Wake when you didn't?" He asked. He thought that ought to shake her up a bit. Misty didn't like to be called on a bluff – he'd learned that one after the unfortunate egg incident when he'd pointed out that, no matter what she told anyone else, she couldn't cook to save her life. He'd spent days in bed with food poisoning, smelling like (not very good) omelette. A repeat incident wasn't high on his list._

_The difference this time was that she'd already admitted to having lied to him about it._

_Misty pursed her lips like she might have been considering her answer. Gary thought this was ludicrous. Misty had a reason for every breath she breathed, and damn it all if she didn't know exactly why she'd lied about knowing Crasher Wake. Nope, Misty had some sort of plan. Always. Hidden Motives was her middle name._

"_For kicks and giggles?" she replied with a shrug, but the smile playing on her lips told him immediately that 'kicks and giggles' were far from the truth. "You'll always look back on this night and laugh at how silly the whole thing was."_

"_No, I'll look back on this night and think 'damn it all, I nearly killed Misty'. That's what I'll think. And I don't find that terribly funny," he replied, snarky and giving her a look that clearly said he wouldn't be laughing about this later._

"_No, you won't," she shot back, rolling her eyes. She crossed her arms behind her head and gazed up at the overcast sky. "We've been friends for ages, Gary. I know you. And I know you'll be laughing this off, years from now, with Ash and Ritchie and the others. You'll probably be laughing at how silly this game was, too. I know you will. I'm not stupid."_

"_Arceus, Misty," he snapped, surprised at her. He leaned back on one arm looked down at her where she lay in the bed of the truck. "I almost killed you. That is just about the most not-funny thing I can think of. That was, without a doubt, the scariest thing I've ever experienced. Ever. You could have died."_

"_Gee, Gare. Never knew you cared," Misty smirked smugly up at him, like a cat that had just caught its mouse. Or at least he felt a bit like that was what had happened. Yes, she was a cheshire Cat, without a doubt. "And nothing was stopping you from dying either, so shove it."_

"_That's different," he said immediately, on the defense before he even realized that he was completely and utterly wrong. "You could have died."_

_Misty burst out laughing – and it was definitely a laughing at, not a laughing with; he could tell. "Thanks for clearing that one up, Gary. Otherwise, I might have been confused. But now that you've said it, the difference is so startling, I'm amazed I could have overlooked it." She grinned up at him cheekily._

_If Gary could blush, he would have. But he was far too man for something like that. So, instead, he admitted grudgingly, "Fine. I get it. It's not different to you. Whatever. But honestly this time. Why did you lie about knowing Crasher Wake?"_

_She smiled almost thoughtfully, but quickly avoided his eye, shrugging carelessly. "I don't know. You know how everyone – or all the girls, anyway – talk about the 'Oak Charm' when they talk about you?" She caught his eye again, and she was smirking this time. This was bad news._

_He quirked an eyebrow up at this. Oh, he knew he was a ladies' man. Of that there was no doubt. But what was Misty doing, bringing it up like that? It must have been a sign of the apocalypse. "Oh, you wanted a taste of it for yourself, then?" He grinned at her._

"_Oh, no, no, no, no. Not in this lifetime," she smiled at him demurely, like a woman might when she was up to no-good. "I just wanted to be able to point out how very wrong they all are. You know, don't knock it until you try it? Well, I have tried it. And let me tell you, I am disappointed." There was humor dancing in her eyes._

"_Well, you wouldn't have been if I'd known it was pop quiz time," he retorted defensively. Trust Misty to shoot him down, sure. It was practically her job. But dang, if he'd known… he could have taken advantage just like that. Misty was cute… it could have worked…_

_No, no, no. This was Misty. Friend Wall. It was there, and it was made of diamond. It wasn't coming down anytime soon._

"_Oh, I'm so sure," Misty rolled her eyes but laughed anyway. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me." She winked prettily. "Anyway, back to the game. My question. What's your greatest regret in life?"_

"_Not being able to spell supercalifragilisticexpial-idocious," he replied immediately, which was actually mostly true. "It's right up there with not being able to pronounce all the letters of the alphabet in order all at once. But aren't you going to ask me what my first thought was after the crash? Like you led up to?"_

_Misty smiled tightly to herself, twirling a piece of hair between her fingers idly. _

"_You already told me the answer to that one, stupid._

_"It was, without a doubt, the scariest thing you've ever experienced."  
_


End file.
